After More Than 3,000 Consumer Grievances In A Month, Notice Issued Against Uber And Ola

App-based cab aggregators Ola and Uber have been served notices by Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) over their alleged unfair trade practices and violations of consumer rights.

The two companies have been pulled up for several reasons including -- lack of proper consumer grievance redressal mechanism, deficiency in service, unreasonable levy of cancellation charges and fairness of algorithm used to charge fares.

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Flood of complaints against Ola, Uber

The notices were issued on Friday after 2,482 grievances were registered by consumers against Ola and 770 grievances were registered against Uber in April on the National Consumer Helpline (NCH).

The authority has raised the issue of deficiency in service which includes lack of proper response from customer support, driver refusing to take payment by online mode and insisting for cash only, the higher amount charged despite going on the same route previously at a lesser charge, unprofessional driver behaviour and driver refusing to switch on AC when the consumer is promised AC ride on the app.

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Cancellation fees

It has also raised the issue of an unreasonable levy of cancellation charges wherein users are not shown the amount of time within which cancelling a ride is permitted. The amount of cancellation charge is not displayed prominently on the platform before booking the ride.

Undue cancellation charges are borne by users when they are forced to cancel the ride due to the unwillingness of the driver to accept the ride or come to the pick-up location.

Inadequate consumer grievance redressal mechanism

The other issues include inadequate consumer grievance redressal mechanism in absence of both customer care number and details of grievance officer as required to be mentioned on the platform and lack of any information on the algorithm or method used by the company to charge different fares for the same route from two individuals, and inclusion of charges for add-on services by pre-ticked boxes for including add-on services without obtaining consent by explicit and affirmative action before each ride.

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Last week, the consumer affairs department under the ministry of consumer affairs held a meeting with representatives of ride-hailing companies such as Ola, Uber, Rapido, Meru Cabs and Jugnoo, and asked them to become partners in the National Consumer Helpline for quicker grievance redressal for consumers and also comply with provisions under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and e-commerce rules.

AFP

In a meeting last week, the government had told told app-based cab aggregators including Ola, Uber, Jugnoo and Meru that they have to improve their systems and redress rising consumer complaints or face strict action.

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